Those are both very good looking, and well taken care of trucks. I'm a big fan of that generation, and while the ones I owned were a few years newer, they weren't much different. The only thing that takes them out of commission early is rust, or that's been my experience.
The other side of the 4x4 in front don’t look as good. 20 years of upstate NY winters, where they use tons of road salt, took its toll on that one. When the frame rusted to the point, where it wouldn’t safely haul my truck camper (or pass state inspection) I was going to pull the tags and use it as a “field vehicle”.
My recently retired father in law asked if he could have it, to use as a plow truck, up at his new home in the mountains. He pulled the box off, got the frame welded up, and did a little body work on it. He also uses it for hauling firewood in the summer up there. I use it for hunting when I visit in the fall. It passes inspection now and is still “on the road”. The air conditioner finally quit last year.
The 2wd, extended cab model in the back was his brother in laws, and that one always wintered in Florida. When I bought it (paid him $5k for it) (4) years ago with 60k miles on it, there wasn’t a spot of rust on it. I learned my lesson about the rust on the other one. I’ve had this one treated with “Carwell” rust-proofing every other year and it remains rust free even though we do use it a little in the winter.
It handles my camper a little better than the 4x4 did and is the top of the line “camper special” model with all the options, 2 batteries, etc.. We just had the camper on it for a vacation last week. The 4x4 is the base model with hand crank windows , plastic floor covers and AC as the only “option”. I also like the 2wd better for hauling my Farmall Cub, where the lower height is an advantage for loading. The 8 ft boxes on both of them fits that tractor like a glove.
